Project Description

Clare was born with a neuromuscular disorder which meant she had reduced movement of her muscles. She had always wanted to play the saxophone and her dream was to play the saxophone riff from Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker street’. She had tried to learn songs from the internet but found the videos were not catered to someone with her particular issues and found it near impossible to progress .

Feeling under satisfied and frustrated she put her saxophone playing dreams on hold. Several years later she was told about Key Lessons and our specialised physical disability tutors and thought now was the time to enquire.

Key Lessons noted her specific issues and found a tutor who had worked with physical disabilities and been trained in the field.

Clare was very anxious at first as she had tried so many times to have lessons and didn’t want to get her hopes up. Clare found the tutor was very patient and able to understand her specific needs . Every lesson was catered to her condition and how she felt that day and she quickly progressed. Within 6 months Clare was able to play her dream song and that propelled her into falling in love with the saxophone.

After two years of lessons and a real good run of progression, Clare started to ask her Key Lessons tutor about composing. The Key Lessons tutor had a degree in composing and Clare divulged that she had a real respect for composers and always wanted to learn how to start writing a piece of music.

They started to have half an hour saxophone lessons followed by 30 minutes composing. The lessons would start with some kind of theme and then build into first of all a 30 second piece, a 1 minute piece and so on. Clare found that she really enjoyed the composition side of music and her skills in the Saxophone had helped her to achieve what she wanted to write.

She started to extensively research many genres of music and settled on wanting to compose music for tv/film.

Clare soon set her sights on an evening course in composition as she wanted to formally take a class to see what she could learn using the latest technology and get ideas from her peers. Clare is currently on her course and enjoying it immensely. She is still taking Saxophone lessons and will soon start piano lessons as that will be helpful her for composition course. We will be keen to see Clare’s progression and where she takes this and wish her every success!